Chapter 2: L and Kira

A/N: I've had a rough few months dealing with sick relatives and my dad getting laid off of work. So I'm sorry I didn't get this out sooner. Life , ya dig? Anyhow thank you for your interest in this story. Special thanks to UsernameUnderConstruction, XyXz, and ShinigamiMailJeevas for reviewing. Your encouragement is felt very deeply.

Chapter 1 recap: Mello reminisces his first meetings with Matt. He seems to regret his involvement with Matt which may have included love, betrayal, and the redhead's untimely death. We learn that Mello has been on death row for 37 years. Two Wammy's agents pay him a visit just days before his scheduled execution, and to Mello's surprise they have Matt's goggles.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor. I made up all of this medical shit. And I totally remade the idea of Kira and the Kira Case for this fanfiction. Super not canon, yo.

Matt's goggles are something of a novelty item. They're tinted for driving in the harsh sunlight, although he had the bad habit of losing things so he opted for goggles instead of glasses. If they were around his neck they wouldn't get misplaced...or something like that. I was never really sure. I just liked ripping them off his face and chucking them across the room. That first piercing look of annoyance as his eyes dilated in the direct light...I loved it. And as long as he wore those goggles, his eyes were a delicacy only I could enjoy. The goggles that Lidner Jr. had given me were undoubtedly Matt's...in fact, they were my final memento of him. It had been a long time since I'd held them in my hands….and the last time I'd seen them, they were in Near's. Near is the one person I hate in this world almost as much as I hate myself. No, fuck that, I hate him the most. End of story.

There aren't words to describe how deeply I loath the entity that is Near River. Once upon a time I thought he was friend...but he's nothing more than a conniving backstabbing little bitch and I'd love nothing more than to see him dead. The truth is...Near should have died. I blew up a fucking building that he was supposed to be in, and he should have died. He should have died! It was a beautiful plan, bordering on goddamn artwork! Sheep plus fire equals barbecue. Simple. Beautiful. Flawless.

Except nothing went as planned.

I don't know how the chain of events went but he must have known my plan. Near and I are like two sides of a coin and he knows how to get into my head really well. Hell it wasn't the first time I'd tried to kill him, so I'm not surprised he found out...not that any of that really matters anymore. The important thing is that Near wasn't in the building—Matt was. Somehow the fucker switched places and I killed Matt in his place and that—that—I will never forgive him for.

And I remember what Near said to me, what he said when I saw him last. It was the day of my trial. The bailiff had just slapped the prison-issue designer bracelets around my wrists and I stood proudly with Matt's goggles in my hands. A few Wammy's agents were sitting in the amphitheater and Near was among them, curling a lock of his white hair. He made his move when it was time for me to leave the hall. He whispered it into my ears as he pulled the goggles out of my hands—pried his damn trophy out of my hands.

Unless you win the game or solve the puzzle, you're nothing but a loser

Nothing. But. A. Loser.

It took five guards to pry me off that worthless albino shit. I felt bones crunch beneath my fists as I pounded into his legs and sunk my teeth into an arm. And I painted that white canvass in shades of blood. Blood that dripped from my fists. Blood that ran from the gashes on his body. Blood that welted in bruises and stained reds and purples and greens across that milky skin. And they carted me away in my handcuff before I could finish strangling him with the metal chain.

I was left with nothing.

And Near had everything.

"Mr. Mello, the car will be around in 12 minutes. Please change into these clothes in the meantime."

Lidner Jr. Handed me a bag, presumably the change of clothes. I began to strip in the room. She blushed and averted her eyes.

"Oh come on,kid. Nobody in this place has any sense of shame with their bodies. We don't even have the dignity of being able to flush our own waste down the toilet."

"R-right. Sorry, please continue."

I'm not sure if the woman was feigning prudence or whatever. I've never felt vulnerable naked. I slipped into the t-shirt and jeans and allowed Lidner to blindfold me. There was nothing to be afraid of. The worst they could do was kill me, and I've prepared myself for death from the moment I stepped foot on death row. At the very least, I was knew where they were taking me. I was going to where Near was.

Near. Or I suppose he was L now to the justice-loving world. Some fucked up sense of Justice!

Justice is merely an illusion. Governments and countries are nothing more than factions of the greatest organized crime syndicate in the world. All the wars and epidemics are planned and executed by a single organization: Wammy's. Wammy's is an organization that grooms genius children into the future masterminds and saviors of the world. The truly outstanding ones are called the Alphabets: an elite group of individuals that outclass the simple name of genius. They are the ones who change the world. It is the desire of every Wammy's agent to gain their own letter and join rank with the Alphabets, but sometimes for the sake of world order, continuity isa goal. No two people alive can share the same letter. In this way, a letter must be earned and passed on through a successor. This is the primary reason that Wammy's gathers children in orphanages around the world: there is a need to select only the best who can carry the torch for their predecessors. Their methods are less than savory. If you defy them, you die. If you follow them spinelessly, you suffer a fate much worse. They plant their agents in every country. Sometimes there are renegades and deviants...do gooders who think they can change the world with unrealistic ideals...people like Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi. Sometimes there are a few of the opposite. A few years ago a young man named Light Yagami tried to infiltrate and an agent named Lawliet died as a result. Lawliet was different, though. Lawliet didn't play by the rules of Wammy's. Lawliet didn't believe in kidnapping children and raising them into the Wammy's army. He didn't believe in betraying the trust of the other Wammy's agents. Lawliet was my hero. He was also the last one to bare the alias L. I was once a candidate to be his successor. In the days of my youth, I was preparing myself to be the next L.

But he's been dead a long time, and in his place now sits a man I hate. A man I used to trust.

Near.

I clenched my fist as I was being led around blindfolded. Near. If I was lucky enough to see him in person I'd jam my fingernails into his pretty little white throat. He isn't stupid enough to do anything more than hide behind a computer monitor, but perhaps I could make use of Track and Lidner Jr. They might be Wammy's but that doesn't mean they can outsmart me. Of course Near would have thought of that ahead of time. The most likely scenario is that they know too little to be of any real use to me. I wouldn't be able to get them to take me to his physical location. I'd have to settle for being dragged into some warehouse where at best I'd speak to a monogrammed L on a computer screen or at worst I'd be talking to some proxy L who acted as his physical face. No, Near wasn't Lawliet. He had his own way of doing things. But if I know him the way I think I do...then I probably will get to see him face to face. I will have exactly one chance. That is the way between Near and I. We are both risk takers and enjoy the pressure when all the cards are on the table and the one with the best plan, the most thorough logic, usurps the other in complete and perfect victory.

A bag was placed over my head, presumably to limit my ability to hear the sounds around me and deduce the location. I was led to a car, presumably unmarked. From the weight of the body who slid next to me, I assumed that Track was driving and Lidner was to my left. Two car doors shut in unison and the hum of the wheels as they tread pavement was the only sound to accompany my great excursion out of jail.

Until some gimmicky ringtone broke the peace. The girl answered.

"This is K."

Hmmnn...K? She was one of the Alphabets? It wasn't entirely impossible. Lidner's granddaughter didn't strike me as impressive, but perhaps her specialty lay elsewhere. Unless she was acting under a name like Kay. The Alphabets are considered to be the best of the best at their trade. Some were artists. Others were thieves. Assassins, writers, hackers, con artists, detectives...all manner of professions were associated with the Alphabets.

"Understood. I will remove Mr. Mello's blindfold."

She took the cloth away from my eyes and I squinted until they adjusted to the lighting. I looked over at Lidner who had a small tablet. The screen was projecting a small scripted w. Lidner tapped a few spots on the tablet and a scrambled voice began to speak to me.

"Mello."

"Yes?"

"You have an appearance to make in court today regarding the dismissal of your involvement with the Kira Case. You will be meeting with L shortly to be prepped for the meeting."

Dismissal of involvement from the Kira Case? I nearly felt my heart stop. I snatched the tablet from Lidner and screamed at it.

"What the fuck is going on here? I demand an explanation."

"I have not been given clearance to provide Mello with additional information. All will be explained at headquarters. I will meet with you at the rendezvous point."

When the scripted w disappeared a moment later I rounded on the agents in the car.

"Tell me what the fuck is going on here! You come to me with under the premise that you have information regarding Matt and you kidnap me out of jail. Am I to understand you want me acquitted from the case that has kept me behind bars for the last 37 years?! I'm supposed to be executed in a few days for that very case. What the fucking hell is going on?!"

"Alright. I suppose it's okay to tell you a few more details regarding the Kira Case. As you are aware, we are actually trying to get you acquitted of all involvement with the case..."

"Bullshit. Near provided the evidence to convict me. I confessed to it. That was the agreement we had."

"The evidence Near presented has been compromised. L's being blackmailed with the other holo files. And what's more, it appears that Pandora is alive. Pandora is alive and it has evolved."

"Impossible. Matt, Near, and I created Pandora. We're the only ones capable of changing it or shutting it down, and even doing that much requires two of us."

"Precisely."

Oh my god. Oh my God.

The cruel truth about Wammy's is that sometimes in the process of setting up a hero, a villain must also be born. That's what Pandora was created for. Project Pandora was a computer virus that targeted a database called FN-19. FN-19 was the master database of a tuberculosis vaccine administered to children under the age of 2. That particular vaccine, which was distributed worldwide, had a latent virus that attacked the central nervous system of whoever was infected by it. The virus was called out of dormancy by a specific artificial protein rbOz that Wammy's also developed. When the Pandora virus was activated, it targeted the injection of the rbOz protein into all the major food processing plants worldwide. Effectually, anyone who'd ever gotten a TB shot and who didn't grow their own organic food from scratch would have the FN-19 virus activated into their system. Third world, first world...there was no discrimination. FN-19 had a 98% death rate.

Wammy's had the damn fucking market on bio-terrorism.

And Matt, Near, and I...we were the goddamn keys to the mechanism.

The idea was that this system, the Pandora Virus, was essentially developed by Matt by tweaked by Near and I. As a Wammy's agent, Matt specialized in technology; however, he wasn't in the running to replace Lawliet as L and therefore had neutrality in the rivalry between Near and I. Since Lawliet died without naming his heir apparent, Near and I played a game to determine who was the most worthy of becoming the new L: the world greatest detective. Wammy's set the both of us to work with Matt who integrated our DNA into the access mechanism for Pandora. Retinal scans, fingerprinting, blood and hair samples, as well as voice recognition systems all prevented the access of Pandora's main system. It required any combination of the three of us to access. Even as the creator, Matt couldn't hack his own system without either Near or I physically with him. Our game began when we set the system off on a timer and spread rumors across the internet of an apocalyptic virus that would kill. To make governments take notice, we began mailing warnings to media outlets and new stations predicting the deaths of convicted criminals. Criminals that were given the death penalty began dying in droves, following the predictions we sent out. In truth, they were being fed food infected with the rbOz protein. Those who had the FN-19 virus from their childhood vaccines would become paralyzed due to failure of the central nervous system. Without the flow of oxygen to the heart muscle, the victims would suffer heart attacks and die. The rumors spread like wildfire. The media bolstered the hype around the so called Heart Attack Killer, or Kira, as was popularized by Japanese bloggers. Within a short amount of time it became apparent that whoever this Kira person was, they were behind the heart attacks and thus were committing mass scale murder. Regardless of the moral implicated of killing convicted criminals, there was no way of knowing what Kira was capable of or how he was committing the murders.

Thus the world turned to L.

Who of course...was already dead.

The game was simple. It was a contest between Near and I. Whoever could frame the other for being Kira and successfully present the evidence before the world would take over the title of L. The other would be convicted as Kira and rot in jail for the crime. Naturally we agreed. Matt created fake evidence in the form of something he called a holo disc. There were three holo discs. Matt gave one to me, one to Near, and one to Watari. The discs Near and I held were the exact evidence to convict ourselves for the crime of being Kira. The third disc was a backup of both mine and Near's discs to be used against us in the event that we destroyed ours. Another set of holo files also set in place so that if Matt cheated and helped one of us have an advantage over the other, the three of us would be infected with the virus and die. We played the game. Near won. However he beat me, whatever means that cheat used, I lost my life, my career, and my best friend. I was so caught up in the game that I completely lost sight of what was most important to me.

...and this bitch Lidner Jr wants to tell me that Near is gonna wipe the last forty-fucking years off my record? Bull-fucking shit! When everything was said and done, Near and I shut the Pandora Project down. It's dead. Done. Gone.

Just like Matt.

"We are approaching our destination. I'm afraid I have to replace your blindfold, Mr. Mello."

The blindfold wasn't removed again until I was inside a building. The shock factor of the light hitting my eyes was overshadowed by Near who was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.

"Mello."

There he was, curled up on a mat in his jeans and white shirt. I met his eyes for just a moment, they were the same dark and inhuman blankness that I remembered. Time had worsened his vision for he wore an oversize pair of glasses. A set of crutches at his side told me that the injuries I'd inflicted on him the last time we'd met had at least done permanent damage. Near wasn't going anywhere in that condition. I however, was.

I lunged at him.

The second my fingers grazed his skin I could feel the strangest tingling overtaking my body and rather than strangling the fucker like I'd planned I found my body falling to the ground inexplicably. It took only seconds for a complete numbing to wash over me and I flopped around like a magickarp: useless and powerless.

"Mello's clothes were soaked in a special topical neurotoxin. Mello will not have mobility for thirty minutes."

Damn him! Damn that Near to hell!

"The timing for the release into the bloodstream was off by a margin of approximately 90 seconds. Kay, I do believe he would have killed me if you had been any later in getting him to put these clothes on."

Fucking Near! I'd never even thought he'd pull some crap like this. I couldn't turn my head to see her, but Lidner Jr.'s voice chimed in from somewhere behind me.

"I...that is...please accept my apologies, L."

He didn't even look at her in response. His attention was on me and his eyes danced in mirth at the helpless position he's put me in.

"My dear Mello."

I managed to spit at him. My body wasn't doing what I was telling it to.

"Mello. I will cut straight to the chase. I think there's a chance that Matt is alive."

My brain stopped.

My mouth wasn't completely numbed anymore but I couldn't make any intelligent speech. I could only listen as Near spoke. I didn't completely catch what he was saying. I was still mulling over the possibility that Matt could actually be alive. I desperately wanted to believe that it was true. And Near had no real reason to lie to me. I caught bits and pieces of his logic for why he thought Matt was alive and I came to the conclusion that I had nothing to lose in believing that he was alive. If he was, it was the biggest relief of my life. I listened as Near went on and explained some recent events at Wammy's. During the yearly hacker proficiency exam an agent in training called Sterling had wormed her way into a highly secure folder that had information on the Pandora Project. Not knowing anything about the files she was in, she tripped one of Matt's old security systems and it triggered an entire hell's worth of viruses and worms to infect the entire network of Wammy's computers. Wammy's or not, the kids taking the exam were amateur hackers compared to Matt and they couldn't withstand his ghost attack. In the few hours it took Near and a few of the alphabets to get everything back to stability, the system was extremely vulnerable. That's when the leak was discovered. The files that Sterling uncovered were changing. The source code was changing. The document types were changing. The purpose and functions of the files were changing. Somehow someone had gotten into the system completely undetected and they were remotely manipulating them: Wammy's was being hacked. When Near tried to track the origin of the attacks he was warned that the holo files were being activated which was the file-type that would infect him, Matt, and I with the virus. Near needed to find the attacker and shut his shit down. He couldn't do it without accessing the Pandora database. And he couldn't do that alone either.

"So Mello, if you help me, we have a chance at finding Matt and being cleared of your involvement in the Kira Case, thus you would be able to start your life over again. If you don't help me, we both die as an effect of the holo files. I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with that option, except if Matt is alive, he dies as well. I don't believe you'd be willing to take that risk. At the end of the day, the choice is yours. What shall it be?"

It was nearing the half hour mark and I was able to speak again.

"Let's make this very clear, Near. I'm not working with you. I'm using you. You are my pawn...a mere tool to help me find Matt. And if I find you are lying, I will kill you. This time I will not fail. That is a promise."

"Of course Mello. I wouldn't have it any other way."

A/N: This chapter is like information overload. I tried to make it interesting without getting too technical, but I'm not sure if I hit the right balance. If there were parts that were too unclear, please don't hesitate to tell me so I can fix it.